When the man of your dreams is HIV-positive, where do you go from there? This and other difficult questions are asked (and sometimes answered) in "Jeffrey," a new film about dating in the age of AIDS.

It opens Friday at the Kentucky Theatre. The title character, played by Steven Weber, is a young gay waiter-hoping-to-be-an-actor who swears off dating because the threat of AIDS is overwhelming. While his friends and family are trying to persuade him to rejoin the dating scene (his Donna Reedish mother cheerfully offers to have phone sex with him if it would help), he meets his ideal man, Steve (played by Michael T. Weiss), only to find that Steve is HIV-positive.

"Star Trek: The Next Generation" fans will see a different side of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, as Patrick Stewart portrays the role of Jeffrey's best friend, Sterling, an interior designer. Screenwriter/producer Paul Rudnick said in a news release that when Stewart appeared in a floor-length velvet cape and tiara, "He was impeccable, Richard II with a dash of RuPaul."

The film is based on Rudnick's play of the same name, which debuted off-Broadway in January 1993. Since then, it has won numerous awards and has been produced around the world. The film has several big names in its supporting cast, including Sigourney Weaver as a New Age evangelist, Olympia Dukakis as the mother of a "pre-operative transsexual lesbian son," and Robert Klein as Skip Winkley, the sleazy host of a game show called "It's Just Sex!"

The film's producers had problems getting actors to participate in the film until Weaver signed on. "Maybe some male performers weren't ready to lust after other guys on camera," producer Victoria Maxwell said in a press release. It wasn't easy to get a studio to pick up the story. No major Hollywood studio was interested in producing "Jeffrey," and it eventually was signed on by Workin' Man Films. "Hollywood's terror of gay material can get irrational," Rudnick said. "An onscreen gay kiss is seen as more threatening than a mad bomber, a homicidal alien or a vengeful single woman. It's kryptonite."

The designers wanted the film to resemble a 1940s romance movie, very glamorous and glossy. New York is shown in a surreal, almost fantastical way, with only clean sidewalks and sparkling buildings. "This is New York as a big romantic, playground," said production designer Michael Johnston.

One of the highlights of the film is a recreation of Gay Pride Day, including a parade with banner-carrying groups like "Pan-Asian Bisexuals" and "Gay African-American Republicans." Among the participants was a man on stilts sprinkling fairy dust while wearing 15-foot fairy wings. "He even sprinkled glitter on a field trip of 8-year-olds from a parochial school. The kids loved it, and I'm sure Cardinal O'Connor was very pleased," Rudnick said.